TO BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
AMAZON.COM ACQUIRES TWO LEADING INTERNET COMPANIES
INNOVATORS PLANETALL AND JUNGLEE TO ENRICH CUSTOMERS' E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE
SEATTLE, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading online retailer Amazon.com, Inc.
(NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire
two innovative Internet companies to enrich its e-commerce experience for
customers.
In separate transactions Amazon.com has agreed to acquire:
o PlanetAll, based in Cambridge, Mass., which provides a unique
Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service at
http://www.PlanetAll.com. PlanetAll has 1.5 million members, and
thousands of new members are joining each day to use the secure,
free service to organize and automatically update information
about friends, business associates, relatives, and alumni.
o Junglee Corp., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the leading provider
of advanced Web-based virtual database (VDB) technology that can
help shoppers find millions of products on the Internet.
"PlanetAll is the most innovative use of the Internet I've seen," said
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "It's simply a breakthrough in doing
something as fundamental and important as staying in touch. The reason PlanetAll
has over 1.5 million members -- and is growing even faster than the Internet --
is simple: it creates extraordinary value for its users. I believe PlanetAll
will prove to be one of the most important online applications."
PlanetAll is not only the best way to keep in touch with business
associates and friends but also to get back in touch with old friends. Users
have complete control over their own contact information and decide what
information they want to share with others on a person-by-person basis.
PlanetAll's service is compatible with personal information managers (PIMs) and
personal digital assistants (PDAs), such as Microsoft Outlook and 3Com Palm
Pilot.
"PlanetAll's goal is to make staying in touch with friends and business
contacts effortless," said Jim Savage, CEO of PlanetAll. "Amazon.com allows us
to take the vision of PlanetAll's founders, Warren Adams and Brian Robertson, to
an even larger audience. We're thrilled to join Amazon.com's world-class team
that cares as deeply as we do about providing meaningful services that enrich
people's lives."
"As an investor and partner, we recognized early on that this
technology has enormous promise with widespread applicability," said Bob Davis,
CEO of Lycos, which holds a stake in PlanetAll. "We look forward to continuing
to provide PlanetAll's secure and feature-rich service to Lycos users."
PlanetAll has integrated its service within the sites of a number of
Internet leaders, including Lycos and GeoCities, as well as numerous
universities and
professional associations. Amazon.com intends to operate PlanetAll as a wholly
owned subsidiary located in Cambridge. Savage and the two cofounders will remain
with the company.
Junglee has developed breakthrough database technology that can
dramatically enhance customers' ability to discover and choose from among
millions of products online. To date, two of the markets Junglee has targeted
have been online retailing and online recruitment. Junglee's customers and
partners in these markets include Yahoo!, Compaq, Snap!, six of the top seven
newspaper companies, and many other new-media companies. All founders of Junglee
will remain with the company.
"Junglee has assembled an extraordinary team of people," Bezos said.
"Together we'll empower customers to find and discover the products they want to
buy."
"This is a significant opportunity for all of us at Junglee to extend
our technology well beyond our current base," said Ram Shriram, President and
COO of Junglee. "With Amazon.com, we can address the larger challenges of
e-commerce sooner -- and on a broader scale -- than we could have alone."
Amazon.com will acquire 100 percent of the outstanding shares and assume
all outstanding options of Junglee and PlanetAll in exchange for equity having
an aggregate value of approximately $280 million. Amazon.com will issue
approximately 800,000 shares and assume all outstanding options in connection
with the acquisition of PlanetAll and anticipates accounting for this
transaction as a pooling of interests. Amazon.com will issue approximately 1.6
million shares and assume all outstanding options in connection with the
acquisition of Junglee and anticipates accounting for this transaction under the
purchase method of accounting. Each transaction is expected to close within the
quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., offers more than 3 million book, music, and other
titles, plus easy-to-use search and browse features, secure credit card payment,
personalized recommendations, and direct shipping. Amazon.com has virtually
unlimited online shelf space to offer customers a vast selection easily accessed
through an efficient search-and-retrieval interface, as well as streamlined
ordering through 1-Click (SM) technology. Amazon.com pioneered the concept of
syndicated selling on the Internet and has more than 100,000 members in its
Associates Program, including AOL.com, Yahoo!, Netscape, Excite, the AltaVista
Search Service, the @Home Network, and iVillage.
About PlanetAll
PlanetAll provides a unique Web-based address book, calendar, and
reminder service at http://www.PlanetAll.com. PlanetAll has 1.5 million members,
and thousands of new members are joining each day to use the secure, free
service to organize and automatically update information about friends, business
associates, relatives, and alumni. The service was launched in November 1996,
and its investors include CMG @Ventures, Arts Alliance, Lycos, and Puma
Technology.
About Junglee
Founded in June 1996, Junglee Corp.'s breakthrough virtual database
(VDB) technology is based on award-winning doctoral research by the company's
founders at Stanford University. Junglee's first deployment was CareerPost.com,
the Washington Post Company's online recruitment site, in January 1997. Junglee
carries more than 15
million items in the Junglee Shopping Guide and over 90,000 job listings in its
Job Canopy.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating
history, the unpredictability of its future revenues, and risks associated with
capacity constraints, management of growth, new business opportunities,
international expansion and business combinations. More information about
factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included
in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
1997, and quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 1998,
both filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Amazon.com, Earth's Biggest Bookstore, and 1-Click are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. All other names mentioned herein
may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Note to Editors: Members of the news media may participate in a
conference-call demonstration of PlanetAll.com at 11:00 a.m. EDT today, August
4. Call (888) 618-8003 and request Conference No. 3234077. Please go to
http:///www.planetall.com in preparation for the demonstration.
/CONTACT: Bill Curry, Amazon.com, (206) 834-7180/
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